‘The Love List’ opens at Atlantis

In a world filled with heartache and heartbreak, nothing provides relief faster than a good belly laugh that rumbles from down deep within and doesn’t stop till it roars.

A play that opened February 14 at Atlantis resort provides just that kind of laughter, a guarantee-or-your-money-back cure-all for anything that’s gone wrong.

“The Love List”, a romantic comedy, is a side-splitting running dialogue among three actors, two old friends who face turning 50 – one of them alone, the other married – and a woman who appears out of nowhere and is everything the single, lonely man ever wanted; in fact, everything that the two men dreamed of from a list they made of the perfect woman.

The play, produced by and starring Canadian-born actress and Bahamian resident Heather Kosoy, and written by Norm Foster, the man considered Canada’s number-one humor playwright, is both rip-roaring edgy and slyly revealing.

By exploring what attributes constitute the perfect woman for a lifetime of happiness and assigning a certain sex act as top priority before reluctantly dropping it a notch or few, the writing exposes the shallowness of man’s true values. Shallow, however, sits well with the friend named Leon, who defends his reasoning for including large breasts as an admirable feature of the ideal woman.

“Being shallow cuts through all of the crap… You don’t understand Shakespeare, but you love a good Western. You don’t know what the hell Nietzsche was all about, but you know what the Red Sox batted as a team against left-handers last year. No, I quite enjoy my shallowness. I wallow in shallow.”

For Kosoy, playing the fantasy woman in a comedy along with being reunited with Canada’s most prolific playwright and top-ranked stage actors has been “sheer joy”, a labor of love six months in the making.

“We live in a world that is in turmoil, people have all sorts of problems and we take things too seriously. We need more laughter, more light-hearted moments. Theater is a wonderful form of escape, and with this play you have a good laugh but it also makes you stop and think about what is really important,” said the actress who, as producer, ensured that there was a strong Bahamian contingent handling all sets, stage, lighting, music and sound effects.

“The Love List” uncovers the futility of fantasy while leaving the temptation of the idea intact. Like a play within a play, when one wished-for quality or another exhibited by the “perfect woman” backfires and the opportunity arises to change the characteristics the characters assigned, each change leads to a new set of regrets. It’s like a Cabinet shuffle, meaning you got it wrong the first time, but you have no intention of confessing.

It’s the quintessential example of the guidance to be careful what you wish for.

For the audience, they may just wish for the play to last a little longer or a sequel to follow. Tickets are $49 for regular seating and $75 for VIP. The film is recommended for audiences 18 and older.